CDC-USA Chairman, Alfred Jardia, Joins the Unity Party Gov’t

Liberia’s once indomitable opposition political party, Congress for Democratic Change, CDC is transforming into what is considered as a conduit for personal gains and achievement by leaders and executives of the party as the party has disfigured itself, leaving executives to grab what they can get now before it finally sail into oblivion after the 2011 elections if they loss, something which is plausible and more glaring now because the party is deeply disintegrated and the fragment that remains is divided into infighting and several factions.

But the move by the party United States chapter, CDC-USA, Chairman Alfred Jardia to join the Unity Party government recently as Human Resources Director at the Ministry of Education few weeks after his party convention in Kakata, Margibi County which brought Cllr. Winston Tubman out as Standard Bearer of the CDC, while the party founding iconic leader, football legend George Weah relegated himself to go second as Vice Standard Bearer seems puzzling to many.

The CDC-USA boss was one of the staunchest persons and party executives who insisted their former Standard Bearer and founding leader, Weah gives up the standard bearership of the party in this year’s election to someone else because he (Weah) could not pull off a victory in the 2011 elections but going second was the surest means for the party to take control of state power.

As the common saying goes,” be careful what you wish for”, the CDC founding iconic leader gave in and relegated himself as Vice Standard Bearer to Cllr. Winston Tubman but Chairman Jardia and others who pushed for their founding party leader to relegate himself second did not take it lightly by the choice of Cllr. Winston Tubman their former party leader chose to relegate himself to other than the broad base consensus of the party to rather go with the merger with the Liberty Party and bring out Cllr. Charles Brumskine as Standard Bearer whom they believe had added value to winning the 2011 elections than Cllr. Tubman considered a drag on the party’s chances in the 2011 elections.

The CDC-USA chairman decision to join the government of the Unity Party, the once indomitable opposition party’s sworn adversary, is a clear manifestation of how the party dangling confidence to winning the 2011 elections is lost in translation for which he (Jardia) has calculated to accept the job now before the elections is over and the party political stock value could come crushing which could also plumate his political value.

Chairman Jardia joining of the Unity Party government is an addition to the long string of the opposition CDC executives who have accepted to work in the Unity party government including two of the party’s former national Chairmen who left and are officials in the UP government. The party’s former Secretary General and closed confidant of former party leader and founding standard bearer, George Weah earlier left few months ago and is believed to be an operative of the ruling Unity Party as he attempted recently to lure his former partisans into a scam to pledge support President Sirleaf and the Unity Party but it call blew off and all went hell broke loose.